Products in this article were provided by LEGO®; the author's opinions are their own.
02 June 2022
LEGO® Friends parts review & MOCs: 41704 Main Street Building
30 May 2022
Old Elementary: 10 years of LEGO® Friends
With LEGO® Friends celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, I wanted to take a look at what the history of this theme has brought to us LEGO fans. And I’ll start off with this statement: I love LEGO Friends! The models are colorful, detailed, and take place in ‘real-life’. They are great for city-building, and they have excellent playability. They also offer lots of ‘MOC-food’; with all the new elements and colors they have made available, Friends has made a great contribution to MOC design.
While LEGO City also offers great buildings, they are on a much smaller scale. The majority of Friends sets can easily be integrated into a city, whereas City has a lot of off-shoot subthemes that are much trickier to incorporate, like the Stuntz and Lunar Base series. And how many police stations does a city really need?
16 January 2022
LEGO® Friends review: 41703 Friendship Tree House
TobyMac (@toby_mac83) reviews the LEGO® Friends 10th anniversary set, 41703 Friendship Tree House. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop | UK LEGO Shop/for Europe 'Change region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.
LEGO has marked several theme anniversaries in recent years: LEGO Star Wars turned 20 in 2019, LEGO Harry Potter did the same in 2021 and LEGO Ninjago turned 10 that same year. For Star Wars there were promotional micro-builds and several remakes of older sets. Harry Potter celebrated with a relaunch of the Hogwarts modular sets and released golden minifigures of the main characters. Ninjago featured golden figures too, albeit with some added colours. With LEGO Friends turning 10 in 2022, I was looking forward to what LEGO will be doing to celebrate. Will there be golden minidolls? A remake of some classic sets? Or maybe a set packed with references?
When 41703 Friendship Tree House was announced as the 10th anniversary set, well, to be honest I was a bit underwhelmed. Yes, it’s big and looks great, but where are all the friends? Where are the 10 years of theme history? So it was not love at first sight. But I’ve been tricked by box art before; often sets look better in real life than in photos. So, eager to discover what I’m missing, I climb into the tree house.
30 July 2021
5x5 fest: Caz Mockett's MOCs
Caz Mockett (@cazmockett) is the first of the 5 contributors in our 5x5 fest! We sent her 5 LEGO® sets and asked her to use the new and interesting parts to create MOCs. Every Friday is 5x5 fest day for the next 5 weeks, so come back to see what our next AFOL built.
As a relative newbie to the New Elementary team, I have not been involved in a Parts Festival before, so I was eager to have a go this time. We each received a copy of LEGO® set 71746 Jungle Dragon from the Ninjago theme, 43184 Raya And Sisu Dragon from the Disney lineup, one of the eight VIDIYO™ BeatBoxes and up to two extra small sets of our choice, to use for our MOC festival. To save repetition, we covered the interesting new elements in the two largest sets in our 5x5 fest introductory article, and I took a comprehensive look at the new parts in all of the Beat Boxes previously. We were encouraged to look at the pieces in our sets as seed parts or to give inspiration, but we were quite at liberty to add additional pieces from our own collections to complete our builds.
23 July 2021
LEGO® Friends review + MOC: 41449 Andrea's Family House
Eero Okkonen (@eerookkonen) casts his critical eye over the architecture of LEGO® Friends 41449 Andrea's Family House today, before creating a brand new model inspired by some of its parts. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop | UK LEGO Shop/for Europe 'Change region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.
41449 Andrea's Family House - released in January 2021 - adds a new building to the series of homes inhabited by the main characters of Friends. Let's analyse its architecture and interesting parts before getting creative with the parts.
28 June 2021
LEGO® Friends reviews: 41677 Forest Waterfall & 41682 Heartlake City School
Saija Saarenpää (@saija_kristina) returns with not one but two more LEGO® Friends reviews for you today: the 93-piece 41677 Forest Waterfall and 605-piece 41682 Heartlake City School! Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.
41677 Forest Waterfall
This small forest area beside a waterfall includes a wooden log that bridges both sides of the river where the waterfall lands. Included are two minidolls, a squirrel, and a few basic supplies for camping such as binoculars, a bonbon to roast in a fire, and a mug. There’s also a kick scooter as a means of transportation.
31 May 2021
LEGO® Friends review: 41684 Heartlake City Grand Hotel
Saija Saarenpää (@saija_kristina) is our brand new guest reviewer today, examining the new LEGO® Friends set 41684 Heartlake City Grand Hotel. Hailing from Finland, Saija codes and does graphics for her day job. She finished her Dark Age in 2014 via the Architecture Studio set, after which she was gradually lured back to the world of colourful bricks. Will you be buying this colourful set? It is released at midnight tonight 1 June 2021 priced £89.99/ 99,99 €/ AU$169.99; and in North America, 1 August US$99.99. Regardless of what you're buying, please consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.
LEGO® Friends 41684 Heartlake City Grand Hotel is a big package, and seven-year-old me would have screamed for happiness if I got this as a present. It’s also super fun to build and is as exciting as the previous version of the Grand Hotel (set 41101 from 2015).
16 May 2021
LEGO® Friends reviews: 41687, 41693 & 41683
Eero Okkonen (@eerookkonen) examines 3 upcoming 2021 LEGO® Friends sets for you today. Buying them when they're released on 1 June 2021? Consider using our affiliate links, New Elementary may get a commission: UK LEGO Shop | USA LEGO Shop | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. Products in this article were provided by LEGO; the author's opinions are their own.
Funfair magic, beachfront surfing or horseback riding? Today you can enjoy them all, as we review three LEGO® Friends sets being released in June:
- 41687 Magical Funfair Stalls - 361 pieces
- 41693 Surfer Beachfront - 685 pieces
- 41683 Forest Horseback Riding Centre - 511 pieces
21 April 2021
LEGO® Friends review & alt build: 41433 Party Boat
Lee (@citysoncreation) designs his own alternate model from a 2020 LEGO® Friends set for you today: 41433 Party Boat, which is priced 79.99€/ US$$79.99/ £74.99/ AU$$159.99. Buying this set? Consider using our affiliate links: UK LEGO Shop | UK Amazon | USA LEGO Shop | USA Amazon | Australia LEGO Shop, for other countries 'Change Region'. New Elementary may get a commission. The products in this article were provided for free by LEGO; the author's opinions are not biased by this.
It may be a 2020 set but there is no such thing as a bad time to build and review a LEGO® party boat, so let’s hop on with Andrea, Emma and Ethan to take a break as I examine for you the second-largest boat set in LEGO Friends yet: 41433 Party Boat. Then, I use its parts in my own creation!
14 December 2020
LEGO® Friends review: 41430 Summer Fun Water Park
Friends sets are well known for their abundance of vibrant hues, spot-on colour blocking and innumerable details. 41430 Summer Fun Water Park is no exception. This bundle of joy has 1001 pieces, four Minidolls and is priced at US$99.99/ £89.99 / 97.47€.
16 January 2020
LEGO® Friends Review: Series 1 Play Cubes 41400-41404

24 July 2019
Plant or Animal? A closer look at Plant w/3.2 Shaft
13 November 2015
Such a friendly place

The Friends range continues to be popular with over 30 new Friends sets issued in the first half of 2015 alone (not counting polybags and 'tat'). At £99.99 (US$129.99), 41101 Heartlake Grand Hotel is the highest-priced Friends set ever issued and also the one with the most pieces: 1,552. The average price per piece works out as 6.44p (8.38¢), which is not bad as it includes several large plates.
The finished model is an impressive size and is packed with features that provide plenty of playability for the 8-12 year old target age group. There's a moveable lift (elevator), a revolving door, a grand piano, baggage cart, ice cream bar and trolley, sun loungers and a fountain. There is also four-seater taxi for arrival and departure. With only two bedrooms, the hotel is quite exclusive but fortunately non-guests can use the lovely roof-top lounge area. The modular construction enables some alternative arrangements and creative builders, with suitable parts, could add more rooms.
30 August 2015
Scrollin' along
09 January 2015
That soft, rubbery look
How do you like the feel of a woman's soft hair? No, really, the LEGO® Group (TLG) would like to know. They are seeking feedback from fans on those soft rubbery hairpieces used in the Friends and Disney Princess themes since 2012.
Kim Thomsen from CEE explains: "Feedback can range from touch and feel to usability and play value. All is valid, we want the negative and positive feedback. The purpose is to supply LEGO Quality with valuable insights on the soft hair elements from high affinity consumers (that's YOU - our experts)."
So this is your chance to tell them what you think about such elements. The deadline is by end of play this coming Monday, 12 January 2015.
COMMENTING IS NOW CLOSED ON THIS ARTICLE.
12 October 2014
Carry on caravanning
It's been the most pleasant and consistent summer in England that I can recall since I arrived here two decades ago, but now October is here it feels like the sun may finally be gone. So it's a great time to hang on to a little sunshine by breaking out a Friends set, 41034 Summer Caravan
16 June 2014
Rich 'n' juicy
22 April 2014
You're lucky, he's lucky, I'm lucky, we're all lucky!
14 December 2013
When tigers chillax
The Friends 'Collectables' range launched one year ago and since then nine cute, small and affordable bagged sets have been released featuring animals in little environments. I've mentioned them once or twice in the past thanks to the appearance of unique elements, and indeed the new one that I am discussing today - Tiger’s Beautiful Temple - got a mention in a recent post (so I'll try not to repeat myself).
13 November 2013
Curls and swirls for little girls
The first is a new plant! It can be seen clearly here on 41050 Ariel's Amazing Treasures. It reminds me of an unraveling fern, yet also works well in this underwater scene. There's something a little odd and creepy to me about the way it curls like that. It feels a little alien... and in fact, I've literally just spotted an Olive Green one in 75037 Battle on Saleucami (yes, there are Star Wars set leaks too). This plant seems to fit any scenario... in this forthcoming Friends set, 41026 Sunshine Harvest, it makes me think of a young corn plant.